Synology Disk Station DS-107+ Review

Synology Disk Station DS-107+ is not only a NAS solution but much more than that.  It is loads of features to not only attract home users but also enterprise users as well. The device can generate photo albums, share your iTunes library or even hook up to your Xbox 360 or PS3 for a whole new experience. The attractive price is icing on the cake for a device of its caliber.

Synology Disk Station DS107+ specifications :

• Dimensions : 16 x 21.8 x 6.3 cm
• Weight : 810 g
• CPU : 266 Mhz
• RAM : 64 MB
• Hard Disk : Internal SATA 3.5″ X 1
  External : USB 2.0 interface
• Max. capacity internal : 1TB
• Max. supported IP camera : 2
• Other features : UPnP Support, iTunes Server support,
  Audio Station support, Photo Station 3 support
• Approx. price : $375

The design of the DS107+ is neat and attractive. It has an all white enclosure that houses the internal hard drive as well has all the ports.  The enclosure is made p of plastic that does not feel cheap. It has rounded corners which is always welcome. It has twice the RAM and faster processing speed of DS107 that was the previous iteration of the DS107+ for those of you who didn’t guess it already!

The device supports only one internal hard drive which is a shame considering its list of features that can really eat up the storage capacity pretty quickly. The DS107+ does not ship with a hard drive. The maximum size of the internal hard drive supported by the current firmware is 1TB. The ports on the DS107+ are three USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port and an eSATA port. The eSATA port and a USB port is located in the front and the rest are at the back.

One can connect external storage via the USB or eSATA ports and the minimum acceptable size is 1GB. Also the drive should be formatted in FAT32 format only. The features of the DS107+ can be set up easily via wizards designed specifically for the purpose making it very easy to set up even complex features. Having a USB port is especially useful when you want to quickly connect an external pen drive to share across the network. There is also a USB copy button that copies the content of the connected USB drive on to the internal hard drive, pretty neat feature. There are also few LED indicators that signify the status of the hard drive, network activity and the power status.

The hard drive can be connected by simply unscrewing the screws and placing the 3.5″ hard drive inside. Swapping the hard drives quickly is not possible and requires a couple of minutes. Setting up the DS107+ is as easy as it gets. Synology Assistant assists you in setting up the drive. It can identify the device on the network, map network drives to share folders or even add a printer to the network. It should however be noted that only one printer can be added to the network at a time along with two other USB devices. The Web interface is extremely easy to use that is intuitive and interactive and among the easiest to use you would find in the industry.

Another interesting feature is assigning privileges to created users so as to restrict their access to data on the network. This process is similar to Windows XP user account creation and you can also form groups. New users can be added to groups that automatically assigns them the privileges of the group. The drive is compatible with Windows SMB system letting you to share the network drive just like as if it was on a shared computer. This essentially means that client PCs do not need any additional software to access the drive.

The folders for various tasks have specific names and do not function with user defined folders. Some of these include Web, Music, Public that are created by default. Music folder is used for sharing your iTunes library online and folder with any other name would not suffice for the task. Each application be it Web Station, Photo Station or the Surveillance service, have their specific folder names. Although not a big thing but does take time to get used to.

The completely new feature to be seen on NAS drives is support for surveillance cameras. It supports up to 6 surveillance cameras but license for only one is included by default and additional licenses cost $50 each. Recording can be based on time intervals or motion detection. The recorded quality is great as is easily comparable to dedicated surveillance cameras. It supports a long list of cameras so that shouldn’t be a major but if you are buying one check if its supported or not.

Photo Station is another interesting feature that lets you create photo albums from folders that can be shared on the Internet too. User account needs to be created on DS107+ to use the feature. Users can then also rename, edit captions or even write introductions for the photos. The Web album generated is quite professional and is organised too.

The device can also download files from the Internet all by itself by specifying the URLs in its web interface. There is a utility called Download Redirector that aids in the task and can be installed on PC. Music can be played directly to USB speakers too! The performance of the drive is rock solid and has fast data transfer speeds that leaves other NAS drives behind.

Pros :

• Simple and attractive design
• Surveillance station
• Photo Station
• Download files automatically
• Restrict usage via accounts

Cons :

• Supports only one internal drive
• No bundled drive
• Only one camera license included

Final Thoughts

The Synology Disk Station DS107+ is an awesome NAS drive and much more beyond that. It brings new features to the table at a competitive price. The Surveillance and Photo Stations are innovative ideas well implemented. But it needs a leaf out of Drobo’s book by increasing support for multiple internal hard drives. Overall it is an excellent addition to the network and is worth every penny.

Rating : 4.5/5